Abstract
Computer-brain analogies are ubiquitous in contemporary culture. They also have a long and relevant history. Throughout the history of computer development, computers as “brain-mimicking machines” were used as blueprints for computer design, as inspiration for new visionary ideas, as tools of liberation and as ideological construct obscuring actually existing power relations. Today, with the growing disenchantment with the results of digital transformation, we are forced to admit that these analogies often underpin relationships between human and technology that are disempowering and increasingly problematic.
 Keywords: human-machine symbiosis, augmented reality, memex, hypertext, ideology, Web 2.0, platform capitalism
Highlights
Computer-brain analogies are ubiquitous in contemporary culture
“Human as a machine” and “machine as human” analogies have a long and rich cultural history. The use of such metaphors and analogies increased with the pace of the technological progress, and their cultural functions have become increasingly
The development of “human–computer” analogy very early on became focused on the “brain–computer” association
Summary
“Human as a machine” and “machine as human” analogies have a long and rich cultural history. From La Mettrie’s L’Homme Machine (1748) to early Soviet experiments in which “a machine becomes a tutor, an object of worship and mimesis” [2], “human-machine” analogy acquired layered of symbolic and practical significance. The use of this analogy in digital computing both followed the previous trends and developed unique characteristic suitable to a computer age. In International scientific conference ”Man in the world of culture: problems of science and education”, KnE Social Sciences, pages 77–82.
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